Modding balance changes - attempt 1

[TrashMan]

CURRENT VERSION v0.6: - UPDATED: 2.01.2014

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/iptk9az8vc52j/Xenonauts

DONE SO FAR:

- advanced conventional interceptor(s) added

mix between condor and MIG. Has a cannon, can evade. The second one is all cannons.

- item prices re-balancing. Buffing the prices of all stuff, so you can sell them without a huge loss. Right now, selling anything at all is a huge waste. Especially alien stuff. Even after buffing the price of alien materials and allenium by a factor of 5, it's still not worth selling. But at least you can get SOME money out of it now.

EDIT: Alenium price mistake. It's set to 100.000 in the current file..

- adding a second ballistic weapon tier & research. Just a tiny increase in efficiency.

- weapon re-balance:

burst fire on assult rifles cheaper

accuracy of AR's single shot reduced, but cost of aiming reduced as well.

Shotty has more pellets, lower accuracy.

- 11 new role icons

- all weapons sprites fixed.

- (OPTIONAL... there is a separate weapons file you cna use if you want re-balanced laz0rs) compelte re-balance of all weapons. All lasers are accurate as hell, have increased ammo capacity and 20 TU reload cost. Their armor migation has been reduced.

- More allied AI on maps (especially terror missions) + allied soldier now have some armor and better stats.

Edited January 2, 2014 by TrashMan

[kabill]

I'm still not sure if auto-upgrade/replace is even possible or if it's hard-coded.

I don't know how you would replace items (a la grenades), but if you set the new items in items.xml to "unlimited" (or something like that - I can't remember exactly off the top of my head) then this will automatically provide an unlimited number of those items (which is close enough to what you want, I guess).

[TrashMan]

I decided to simply go for very cheap manufacture cost.

Dang, all the strings that have to be added. It's redicolous that you have to write down "Advanced Assault rifle" in a dozen places!

But almost done..almost.

Look at this s***:

<Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0">

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Items.vhs2</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Advanced Assault Rifle</Data></Cell>

</Row>

<Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0">

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">ManTech.vhs2</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Advanced Assault Rifle</Data></Cell>

</Row>

<Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0">

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">ManTech.vhs2Desc</Data></Cell>

<Cell ss:StyleID="s72"><Data ss:Type="String">An advanced assault rifle usefull in any situation.</Data></Cell>

</Row>

<Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0">

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">weapon.vhs2</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Advanced Ballistic Rifle</Data></Cell>

</Row>

<Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="285">

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">weapon.vhs2.desc</Data></Cell>

<Cell ss:StyleID="s72"><Data ss:Type="String"><font face="fonts/arial.mvec"\><b>Advanced Ballistic Rifle:</b>An upgrade of the standard ballistic rifle, this new rifle uses every prototype technology and advance known to man. It is a bit lighter, more accurate and packs a bigger punch than it's predecessor. Most strike teams should contain at least some soldiers armed with rifles (backed up by more specialist weapons), as they are the best all-around weapon in the game.Damage Type: KineticWeapon Range: 22Projectile Damage: 33Armour Mitigation: 15Clip Size: 30Fire Modes: Single Shot (3), Burst FireReaction Modifier: +0%%</Data></Cell>

</Row>

Name of the weapon, tech and item are all the same...are always the same. Why 3 separate strings for that?

Edited September 10, 2013 by TrashMan

[Nagho]

If I remember correctly, the game automatically replaces the basic medikit with an advanced version once you complete the appropriate research, so I assume something similar could be made to work with the ballistic weapons.

[TrashMan]

Here it is:

*REMOVED*

Not fully tested yet, since I just finished

EDIT:

Edited September 13, 2013 by TrashMan

[kabill]

Found it. You can replace items in researches.xml

In the 'When Finished' column, you can add the following:

ReplaceItem("ITEM_TO_BE_REPLACED","ITEM_DOING_THE_REPLACING");

where ITEM_TO_BE_REPLACED and ITEM_DOING_THE_REPLACING are the names for the items in items.xml

E.g. (upgraded medikit):

ReplaceItem("weapon.grenade.medipack","weapon.grenade.advancedmedipack");

You'll need to change the availability of the items in items.xml to 'UnlimitedOnResearch' too.

[Caveat: I've not tested any of this, but this is how it seems to work based on extant in-game examples. If you find anything wrong with this, I'd be grateful to know!).

[TrashMan]

TESTED.

Seems to wrok. Aditional testing may be required.

Replacement system not in yet. You have to manufactire the new guns. But they are relatively cheap and fast to build.

[TrashMan]

Ugh..managed to get the techs and weaposn working...but hte guns dont' appear. I cna researhc them, I can build them, I can equip them.

but in Ground Combat...the soldiers cannry invisible guns...

[Ishantil]

I'm guessing your new guns are missing references to the graphics files. WalrusJones is a good person to talk to about that, as he has added lots of weapons to the games.

[TrashMan]

Ahh..the image files have to copied and re-named for each armor.

What a totally retarted system. This just creates bigger files and wastes unnecessary sapce. There should be a way to just tell the gem to use sprites for a specific weapon.

[Ishantil]

Yeah, that was my impression. That each set needs its own.

[TrashMan]

Oddly enough it still isn't working... They still aren't showing up.

soldier_spectre.xml doesn't exist.

[WalrusJones]

Its hidden within a compressed file.

My WATBE contains several proper example soldier specter XML's as you would use them.

FEEL FREE TO STEAL THEM.

[TrashMan]

Methinks I'm gonna make allenium missiles limtied and manufacturable.

F'course, that means re-balancing the pricing on a few items.

I never liked the whole "this spent allenium still has SOOOO much energy left it in. Limitless supply!"

[EchoFourDelta]

Methinks I'm gonna make allenium missiles limtied and manufacturable.

F'course, that means re-balancing the pricing on a few items.

I never liked the whole "this spent allenium still has SOOOO much energy left it in. Limitless supply!"

I think what they're getting at is describing what's coming out of the crash sites. You're not pulling much viable alenium at all from any given one; there's plenty of spent stuff, though.

[Elydo]

A similar premise to nuclear fuel in some ways.

[TrashMan]

YAY! Mod is working.

First page updated, new file up for download!

Give it a whirl guys.

[WalrusJones]

I am glad the soldier specters are not out of date.

IT WOULD really suck if they were.

Enjoy them! And.... Community, consider this tech support the best gift the ever so lazy creator of WATBE can give you to make up for him taking forever.

I have time this weekend to do things, and I think most of the mod update will be done in that weekend.

[Ishantil]

Trashman, I like what you have here. I will take a look at the files and see what you are doing. I think it should be compatible with what I already have going on.

I tweaked the basegrenade range in the config.xml, for example.

[TrashMan]

I am glad the soldier specters are not out of date.

IT WOULD really suck if they were.

You wouldn't hapen to have a MG specter?

Trashman, I like what you have here. I will take a look at the files and see what you are doing. I think it should be compatible with what I already have going on.

Go nuts.

[WalrusJones]

I COULD get one.... Yes.

[Ishantil]

I keep getting wonkiness in Excel. Some of the files will open and some won't. I can't get researches.xml to open, for example.

But I can get the original backup I made to open. You notice anything?

[TrashMan]

Can't say I do.

I'm 3 months into my test game and everything works flawlessly.

[WalrusJones]

I keep getting wonkiness in Excel. Some of the files will open and some won't. I can't get researches.xml to open, for example.

But I can get the original backup I made to open. You notice anything?

Some XML is formatted for Excel, some isn't, it seems.

If it is readable in notepad, it probably isn't one of those documents.

As for getting a machine-gun specter....

It wouldn't take a long time to convert a rifle specter to it.

CTRL+F to open search, and use the replace all function to replace all instances of "Rifle" with "Machinegun"

Do this for a copy of the rifle specter for every suit of armor.

Edited September 14, 2013 by WalrusJones

[TrashMan]

NOTEPAD++ is your friend.